


kicking the leaves in the autumn breeze (let's chug the night away!)

by dominhos_pizza



Series: MINSUNG BINGO ROUND TWO COLLECTION [1]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Autumn, Break Up, Exes, Felix and Hyunjin don't appear but are mentioned, M/M, Main Vocal Chan, Minho is Bi in this one, My Pace Jisung, Post-Break Up, Seasonal Motif, drummer changbin, guitarist jisung, pianist seungmin, will add more tags if i'm not lazy later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:49:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29928858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dominhos_pizza/pseuds/dominhos_pizza
Summary: Lee Minho needed to get over a break up. Han Jisung needed to celebrate after a night well done. What’s a better way to meet than to kick the leaves in the autumn breeze and chug the night away with tequila?--“So, Minho, did I ever tell you about that time my friends and I were raking leaves and I tripped on the leaf pile?” Jisung asks loudly in an Alabama country accent.“N-no, it must be f-funny though.”“Well, yeehaw, it was so funny. I was so dizzy that one day and Chan yeeted a pebble at my foot. I went ka-dup-dup-doom on the sidewalk and tripped over the leaf pile. Seungmin grabbed a bottle of that yellowy Gatorade and dumped the thingy on me right after. It was so funny.”Yeah, they may not be light-weights, but don't let them get drunk.
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Past Han Jisung / Elkie Chong (CLC)
Series: MINSUNG BINGO ROUND TWO COLLECTION [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2201067
Kudos: 10
Collections: MINSUNG BINGO: Round Two





	kicking the leaves in the autumn breeze (let's chug the night away!)

**Author's Note:**

> Tropes used: Alcohol/Drinking, Seasonal Motifs (Autumn), AU - Rock Band, Free Space (Exes)
> 
> Mod(s) for the Minsung Bingo, I would have post this fic much earlier had I been checking the right email the entire week. I have multiple emails, and I did not totally just neglect the email I gave you.
> 
> Anyway, recite the STAY National Anthem:  
> Ey, small things that matter  
> Ey, little things that matter  
> Every once in a while, I'mma feel so fly  
> That's 'cause there are subtle things like (Whoo!)  
> Kicking the leaves in the autumn breeze  
> Don't forget about the sound they make  
> Doesn't matter if the world is a cold place  
> Cause I'm getting cooler  
> STRAY KIDS!

“Minho, I think we need to break up.”

  
Minho immediately takes his attention off the Netflix show playing on the television and focuses all of it on Chong Elkie, his girlfriend of the past two years. His eyes grow wide at what she says. 

“Wait, what?”

  
  
“Didn’t you hear the first time?” Elkie tut-tuts. “I think we need to break up.”

“But…” Minho looks at his now ex-girlfriend with sadness, trying to control his heartbroken emotions. “Why? I thought you were happy. I thought I was happy. What went wrong?”

“I think you know what went wrong. We haven’t been speaking to each other as a normal couple for some time; that’s the first reason. And, second of all, I’ve moved on.”

“What do you mean ‘moved on’? Clearly, if you haven’t seen…”

Elkie swiftly interrupts him. “I have my eyes on another guy, Minho. I don’t want to admit that either too, but you definitely have eyes for someone other than me too. Whoever that person is will treat you better than me; I know it.”

  
  
“So you’re just breaking up with me, Elkie?” Minho asks, incredulous of the sudden proposition.

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“How is any of this unfortunate? You’re the one who just broke up with me; you started this mess!” Minho yells. 

Elkie, with her black long hair, gets up from the couch, turns in the other direction, and starts walking to Minho’s apartment entrance. She briefly looks back at Minho with sad eyes.

“You know, Minho, I’m sorry for not being a better partner to you. In all honesty, I never deserved you. I hope you find an amazing person out there to be yours, and take care.”

Minho silently watches her leave the apartment, and he notices that she starts taking off into a sprint as soon as she’s out the door. However, he knew better than to call her back. From this day forward, he wasn’t hers and she wasn’t his. Instead, Elkie was a messenger pigeon set free. It would be useless to call back a free bird; she would never come back.

###

Han Jisung is having quite the fun night.

As the guitarist of Haven, a very popular rock band in town, he’s living his life playing gigs at local bars. He, with his crew, goes from bar to bar having mini-concerts. 

Tonight, he’s playing at The Republic, one of the many bars near the Seoul University campus. It’s not that large of a bar, but it’s comfy enough to settle in as a performer. The Republic has all of the basic bar necessities, including a large number of people, so he and Haven should be fine.

“Yo, Chan! Did the team set up the speaker systems yet?” he screams across the room to Haven’s main singer, Bang Chan.

“Yup!” Chan calls back. “Did you hook up your guitar to the amp? They’re waiting for you!”

“Oh, yeah. Coming!” Jisung waddles across the stage, his long blonde bangs following his movements. He has to walk slow and be cautious because the stage is littered with equipment. There are wires and instruments on the floor galore.

The one benefit at performing at The Republic is that the bar doesn’t open until 7 pm. Haven has plenty of time to set up their equipment before tonight’s show in peace and quiet. That there is a blessing in itself.

Jisung, Chan, and the rest of the Haven team have been at The Republic since four in the afternoon busy with preparations. Since then, they’ve been working nonstop.

At least it’s all worth it at 7 in the evening, the magic opening hour. People ready to have fun drinking and dancing come streaming in in hoards. From the stage, Jisung is amazed at how large the crowd is. It’s stunning to see that many people here at this time and this hour, even if it is a Friday. Haven takes a few minutes for soundcheck and to let people settle in before Chan starts talking to the audience through his mic.

“Good evening, everyone!” Chan exclaims. A few girls, presumably the recurring fangirls of Haven who go to every last Haven gig, screech in the crowd. Changbin, the drummer of the group, snickers from his place with his extensive drum set in the back of the stage.

“Ah, at least some people in this bar know who we are already. If you are absolutely clueless on why the hell we are on this stage,” Chan takes a glance at the back of the stage in between Changbin with the drums and Seungmin the pianist with his keyboard. All four members of Haven slightly bow on stage; Chan leads the group’s introduction. “Hi, we are Haven!”

“Are you guys ready to party?” Jisung calls out to the crowd. Everyone cheers.

“Well, luckily for all of you, we’ve got new songs and we’re ready to have a blast!” Changbin exclaims.

“Changbin, you wanna count us off?” Seungmin says as he takes a glance at Changbin to affirm his answer; the mentioned boy nods. 

“Anyway, grab your drinks and let’s get started!” Chan yells as Changbin clicks his drumsticks four times in beat. “This is one of our classics, ‘District 9’!”

The speakers blare the whistle siren synth melody Seungmin plays. The bang of the hit-hats from Changbin follows. Every sense -- sight, sound, smell, touch, even taste -- swirls in together as Chan leads the song and Jisung does his iconic guitar riffs.

###

Minho has no idea of what he’s doing, but what he does know is that he’s at this place called The Republic.

After what happened with Elkie, he couldn’t stay in his apartment for the night. He had to get out, get his mind off that tragic breakup, and do anything that didn’t deal with Chong Elkie. 

(If she calls him tonight, he’s blocking her and erasing her phone number. Minho has a lot of patience, even for people he dislikes, but Elkie calling him crosses the line.)

You see, right after Elkie sprinted the hell out of his apartment, Minho broke down in sorrow for a few minutes before coming up with a grand idea: drink his sorrows away. Today is the perfect day to do so, too. The leaves are falling down due to the chilly autumn season underway. Gradually, every single leaf on the tree turns brown and gracefully finds its position on the ground. The more leaves there are, the bigger the pile.

These leaves are just like Minho and Elkie’s relationship. It was once green with opportunity; then, it flutters to join the rest of the fallen leaves, all of the other relationships that failed.

Minho couldn’t stand the thought of it, especially since he and Elkie have been together for two years since they started college, but now he has to accept the fact. He has to swallow the truth and gut it.

And gut it he did. Minho took a walk down the sidewalks near his apartment, attentively looking around for any potential dangers. He followed the trail of autumn leaves down the line of apartments, down the path of shops, and down the outskirts of the city. As the night went on, the temperature outside dropped and Minho needed a place to reside for a bit. He’ll take the night bus to his apartment later.

As he crossed the intersection between Main Street and Dreamcatcher Way, he saw a building that caught his attention. It was a decent, medium-sized building with rainbow-colored lights illuminating it and loud music, arguably a rock band, coming out. The sign on the roof read “The Republic.”

“Wait, The Republic does seem kind of familiar. Someone told me about this before.” Minho thinks to himself as he stands on the street corner. He snaps his fingers until the answer pops in his head. “Oh, Hyunjin and Felix liked this place.” 

Hyunjin and Felix are two younger boys from his dance class in college. Over the past years he’s been attending Seoul University, he’s grown to bond to them like siblings. If Hyunjin and Felix like this place, it couldn’t hurt to go in it for once?

The two of them used to invite Minho and Elkie to the bar, but Elkie always refused. Minho had to come up with an excuse to Hyunjin and Felix for why they weren’t coming, which eventually stretched into the most ridiculous reasons ever. Now that Elkie wasn’t there to influence his decisions, Minho could finally decide for himself whether to trust the place or not.

The music coming out from the bar seemed pretty good, so why not? Whoever was playing, especially the vocals and the guitar, did pretty damn good at their role in their band.

Crossing the crosswalk between Dreamcatcher Way and Freedom Boulevard, he ventured his way into The Republic, hoping that he doesn’t regret his decision.

The “Cause later when I become addicted to life” is now stuck in Minho’s mind. Goodness gracious.

###

It was the last song of the night for Haven, but, from Jisung’s perspective, the party has just begun.

“Alright,” Chan speaks at the mic, leaning his weight towards his right foot, and putting a right foot on his hip. “This is the last song of the night, but we have quite the surprise for you all! Talented ace and resident squirrel Jisung is mixing things up tonight. Jisung, would you like to do the honors?”

“ So...the surprise for tonight…’ Jisung drawls off. “For those who have been keeping up with our discography, add another song to your list! We made this last song this week, and we just finished yesterday. Besides that, for this song, I’m swapping roles with Bang Chan!” 

The crowd is loud, especially with the fangirls. During this, Jisung and Chan quickly switch spots and Chan slings Jisung’s beloved guitar over his head. Jisung takes his spot at his new mic.

“Seungmin, start the music!” Jisung smiles.

The piano notes, this time acidic and sharp, begin a melody. A light siren echoes through multiple times, and then Jisung starts singing.

_ I’m a bad boy? Yes, that’s right. _

__

_ I’m not interested, so don’t bother poking at me. _

_ A thing like love isn’t fun. It just goes like _

_ Blah, blah, boring, I don’t want it yeah _

_ But who’s that boy, who the hell is he _

_ He makes me want to stare at him, you see. _

_ I’m not comparable simply to anything _

_ Filters, the lights, even visuals, everything _

“I don’t,” Jisung echoes out as he slings his head out once.

“Mind.” He slings his head again.

  
_ They can blabber all they want about how hip I am _

_  
_ _ Yeah Al~~, right~~ _

_ I don’t care about what they say _

_ That’s what I have been always saying _

_ But when I see you my mouth stops working aye _

_ Oh~~, my ~~ _

Changbin intensifies his grasp on his drumsticks and gradually increases the pace he hits the snare drum.

“You make me, you make me, you make me…” Jisung points to the crowd. When he sets his eyes on the pretty boy sitting at the bar drinking his life away, he actually gasps. This boy was so pretty like a prince. Why would he be at a place like this? 

His professionalism seems to kick in on its own because Jisung subconsciously finishes the line.

“Speechless.”

  
The beat drops. 

###

Minho was casually just chugging a bunch of drinks when he sensed someone plopping in the seat next to him. He turns around to see the handsome boy playing guitar and singing on stage. His name, as Minho remembers it, is Jisung, right? 

Surprisingly, Jisung was at the bar to see him. _Him_. It’s unbelievable.

“So, drinking the pain away I see?” Jisung asks, leaning on the countertop.

“Uh, y-yeah,” Minho says with a stutter. “H-how’d you k-know?”

“A little birdie told me,” Jisung gestures his eyes towards the bartender, who was watching the two from the corner of their eye. “So what’s the pain of your day? It must be tough for a pretty boy such as yourself to be like this.”

“G-girlfriend broke up with me. Called me b-boring and that shit.”

“How in the fu…” Jisung shakes his head. “Ok, ah, it’s the typical. Well then, I have a proposition for you.”

“W-which is?” Minho continues to stutter.

“Shots competition. We determine who can drink the most between the two of us. And, since you have the disadvantage of being tipsy already, I’ll compensate you by paying for the both of us. Are you up to it or no?”

“Y-yeah, sure.” 

“Ok, um, Sakura...if you don’t mind, pile the shots with tequila. I’m paying.” Jisung asks the watching bartender.

“Alright.” The bartender nods, places a bunch of cups on the table, and loads all of them up with tequila. 

She moves each cup near the two of them. “For you. It’ll be $150.93.”

Jisung hands Sakura his credit card. “And done,” he turns to Minho. “Let’s do this...”

“M-Minho. My name’s Lee Minho,” Minho sticks his hand out for a handshake in his dizzy state.

“Ah, what a pretty name. I’m not sure if you heard earlier, but my name is Han Jisung. For this little game, we just alternate between who’s taking shots. One shot mine, one shot yours. Sounds good?”

  
“Y-yeah.”

Jisung leans forward to grab one tequila shot and swipes the contents of the shot down in one gulp. He grabs a shot glass from the small pyramid of shots that Sakura formed and places it in front of Minho.

“No pressure, but it’s your turn.”

Minho takes that glass and chugs it. It tastes like sugar cane juice but fermented. Minho can’t help but taste the bitterness of the tequila, but he realizes that he wants more. It’s addicting.

Minho and Jisung chug the autumn night away, emptying all of the hundred tequila shot cups at the bar. Turns out, the two of them are more than just light-weights.

###

“Chan, come see this.” Jeongin, Haven’s resident maknae manager, calls the sober singer over to the stage. Chan, looking at his phone, puts his phone on the table and walks over to Jeongin. 

“Yeah, what’s up?”

Jeongin points to the bar where a boy with long blonde bangs with eerie similarities to their guitarist was talking to a short brown-haired boy. They both held a glass, presumably with alcohol, in their hands. “Are they okay?”   
  
“Hmm, yeehaw, exposing Seungmin...yup, he’s not okay. Get Changbin and Seungmin, we’re grabbing them.”

“They’re not going to terrorize anyone with country accents no longer!”   
  
“Yeehaw, I’m a horse.”

Jeongin gives him a deadpan glare and facepalms himself. “Not you, Chan.”

###

“So, Minho, did I ever tell you about that time my friends and I were raking leaves and I tripped on the leaf pile?” Jisung asks loudly in an Alabama country accent.   
  
“N-no, it must be f-funny though.”

“Well, yeehaw, it was so funny. I was so dizzy that one day and Chan yeeted a pebble at my foot. I went ka-dup-dup-doom on the sidewalk and tripped over the leaf pile. Seungmin grabbed a bottle of that yellowy Gatorade and dumped the thingy on me right after. It was so funny.”

Two guys, the main singer from Haven and another boy, suddenly grab Jisung by the arms and start dragging him to the stage. The boy he’s never seen before gives Minho a small smile. 

“He’s a loud drunk; we don’t want him to be disturbing The Republic’s potential customers, so we’re bringing him backstage. Come with us?”

“S-sure, although I’m d-dizzy and I’ll probably limp the entire way.”

“Don’t worry about that,” the boy assures him before turning to the stage. “Changbin! Seungmin! Lug him over, he’s dizzy.”

Changbin and Seungmin roll their eyes as they come over and lift him off the ground. Minho yelps in surprise. “Whatever you say, Mr. Manager Jeongin,” they say as the six of them travel like a synchronised tank to behind the stage.

###

After a long night, Elkie sighs in relief as her boyfriend drives her to her favorite bar at midnight. She needs a good old drink and a good old time with her new boyfriend. Her old one didn’t do her justice.

As she exits the red Lamborghini and enters the place, The Republic, Elkie sees a bunch of people partying, a stage littered with stage equipment, and two trains of guys carrying...people? The guy who is being carried in the “second train” seems familiar. 

“Wait a second,” Elkie says. “That’s my ex back there.”

“Your who now?”    
  
“My ex,” she answers. “I broke up with him earlier tonight.”

“Oh, him? What’s he doing here?” 

“I have no idea but he’s getting carried by two guys, Puppy and Mr. Muscle Pig.”

“Excuse me, who now?”    
  
“Can’t you see what’s happening in the back, Juyeon?” Elkie snaps.

Juyeon squints to see what Elkie is seeing, and, when he sees what she’s talking about, he can’t help but look in wonder.

“...Damn.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first submission for Minsung Bingo! They are amazing, go check them out! If you are willing, you can join the writing bingo too! Join now, it's currently round 2!  
> https://twitter.com/minsungbingo
> 
> Follow me at @chocolattewings on Twitter! https://twitter.com/chocolattewings 
> 
> So now...
> 
> Notes when writing this fic:
> 
> I wrote this in a day. I was so excited about being in the Minsung Bingo that I decided to ditch my other fic (it's not posted yet but it will be in around a week!) for a day and write on this. And, surprise, if you've read my "Baby Star" fic, lemme tell you this: the original story is FINALLY coming. I'm posting prologue + four chapters, then you have to wait for each chapter to come out. Now to this fic.
> 
> Fun fact, Elkie (formerly CLC) is younger than Minho by a week. I was going to make Yeeun (CLC) the ex, but I changed it midway heh. 
> 
> Haven was not a coincidence, and I totally didn't think about how Chan mentioned that it could have been the group name instead of SKZ. JK.
> 
> I lowkey stan Dreamcatcher. That was not a coincidence either. Stream Odd Eye.
> 
> Minho's stuttering because he's drunk. I (as the author) am very surprised how he has not passed out yet before meeting Jisung. I made Jisung, on the other hand, country drunk. And, yes, I mocked my state on the way.
> 
> (Istg, I hate 85% of the people in my state.)
> 
> Sakura Miyawaki (IZ*ONE) is the bartender! Hell, I love making the girls from IZ*ONE bartenders. I did it to Minju, did it to Chaewon, did it to Eunbi, and now I'm doing it to Sakura. Welcome to the club. (No pun intended.)
> 
> I love Chan saying "I am horse." XD
> 
> Minho's ex is a gold-digger lmao. Real Elkie formerly from CLC DEFINITELY does not act like this. Please, no hate towards her.
> 
> Songs Mentioned: District 9, Placebo, You Make Me (ITZY, adjusted English version)
> 
> Fun fact: I was going to make the last song Salute by either Everglow or Little Mix, but I realized the drama I could cause with You Make Me, so I did it. :D
> 
> I hate being 10 minutes away from the FBI. Egh.
> 
> (Yeah, I'm not kidding about that last part. I am near them, for some reason. I don't know why.)
> 
> \-->
> 
> Sorry for any mistakes!


End file.
